The idea seemed sympathetic: to offer at the start of the 2020 academic year a school bus line in Rouen (Seine-Maritime) aboard a horse-drawn carriage. An initiative led by the Cheval en Seine association, winner of a call for citizen projects, supported in particular by Green elected officials.
Only here, for Manu Tritz and his companion Stessy, residents of the neighboring city of Sotteville, "this scoop which does well on paper simply forgets to ask the real question: that of animal welfare". Convinced antispecist, the couple therefore launched an online petition at the end of December to ask for the abandonment of this equibus "which could be replaced by a vélobus".
“Because without going so far as to speak of animal suffering, we can undoubtedly speak of discomfort. Pulling a horse-drawn carriage is not natural, ”he argues. And, obviously, the couple is not the only one to think so since nearly 33,500 people have already signed their appeal. “We were expecting the best in 2000. Here we see that the debate deserves to take place. "
Electric assistance
For Jean-Michel Bérégovoy, the elected ecologist who presented the deliberation during the last municipal council, the incomprehension is total: “In this precise case, the question of the animal wellbeing was not evacuated. The carriage, suitable for transporting children, will be light and have electric assistance. And the horses will be housed in excellent conditions ”.
For him, this petition is above all an extreme position, relayed on the Web, far beyond the Rouen agglomeration, by a militant network "who wants to advance his ideas without worrying about the reality on the ground".